Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a chemical process that is used to deposit solid materials on substrates, and is commonly employed in the manufacture of semiconductor devices. In chemical vapor deposition processes, a substrate is exposed to one or more reagent gases, which react, decompose, or both react and decompose in a manner that results in the deposition of a solid material on the surface of the substrate.
One particular type of CVD process is referred to in the art as vapor phase epitaxy (VPE). In VPE processes, a substrate is exposed to one or more reagent vapors in a reaction chamber, which react, decompose, or both react and decompose in a manner that results in the epitaxial deposition of a solid material on the surface of the substrate. VPE processes are often used to deposit III-V semiconductor materials. When one of the reagent vapors in a VPE process comprises a hydride vapor, the process may be referred to as a hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) process.
HVPE processes are used to form III-V semiconductor materials such as, for example, gallium nitride (GaN). In such processes, epitaxial growth of GaN on a substrate results from a vapor phase reaction between gallium chloride (GaCl) and ammonia (NH3) that is carried out within a reaction chamber at elevated temperatures between about 500° C. and about 1,000° C. The NH3 may be supplied from a standard source of NH3 gas.
In some methods, the GaCl vapor is provided by passing hydrogen chloride (HCl) gas (which may be supplied from a standard source of HCl gas) over heated liquid gallium (Ga) to form GaCl in situ within the reaction chamber. The liquid gallium may be heated to a temperature of between about 750° C. and about 850° C. The GaCl and the NH3 may be directed to (e.g., over) a surface of a heated substrate, such as a wafer of semiconductor material. U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,913, which issued Jan. 30, 2001 to Solomon et al., discloses a gas injection system for use in such systems and methods, the entire disclosure of which patent is incorporated herein by reference.
In such systems, it may be necessary to open the reaction chamber to atmosphere to replenish the source of liquid gallium. Furthermore, it may not be possible to clean the reaction chamber in situ in such systems.
To address such issues, methods and systems have been developed that utilize an external source of a GaCl3 precursor, which is directly injected into the reaction chamber. Examples of such methods and systems are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2009/0223442 A1, which published Sep. 10, 2009 in the name of Arena et al., now U.S. Pat. No. 8,382,898, issued Feb. 26, 2013, the entire disclosure of which publication is incorporated herein by reference.